USS Colonel Kinsman (1862)

History
United States
Name: USS Colonel Kinsman
Laid down: date unknown
Launched: date unknown
Acquired: 1 January 1863
In service: 1 January 1863
Out of service: 23 February 1863
Struck: 1863 (est.)
Captured: by Union Army forces, 1862
Fate: sunk, 23 February 1863
General characteristics
Type: Gunboat
Displacement: Unknown
Length: Unknown
Beam: Unknown
Draft: Unknown
Propulsion:
Speed: Unknown
Complement: Unknown
Armament: Unknown

USS Colonel Kinsman (1862) was a gunboat captured by the Union Army during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Army with Navy officers as a gunboat until transferred to the Union Navy, when she continued her work as a gunboat until she hit a snag and sank.

Service with the Union

Capture

Colonel Kinsman — a sidewheel steamer — was captured by the Union Army at New Orleans, Louisiana, and fitted out as a gunboat at the direction of Major General Benjamin F. Butler for service in the rivers and bayous of Louisiana. At Butler's request, Rear Admiral David Farragut assigned naval officers to command the Army gunboats; Acting Volunteer Lieutenant George Wiggins was given command of Colonel Kinsman in October 1862.

Duel with ironclad CSS J.A. Cotton

On 3 November 1862 in Bayou Teche, Louisiana, Colonel Kinsman joined a vigorous action against Confederate troops and the ironclad gunboat CSS J. A. Cotton. Moving close inshore, Colonel Kinsman dispersed an artillery battery, all the while firing at the gunboat. Colonel Kinsman was hit more than 50 times in this heated engagement, suffering two dead and four wounded.

Official transfer to Union Navy

The gunboat was officially transferred to the Navy on 1 January 1863, Lieutenant Wiggins remaining in command. Colonel Kinsman was damaged in Bayou Teche on 14 January 1863 when with other Union ships, she again fought Confederate shore batteries and J. A. Cotton. This time, the Confederate gunboat was damaged so severely that she had to be destroyed.

Sinking

Colonel Kinsman's career ended on 23 February while on a reconnaissance of Berwick Bay when she struck a hidden snag and ripped open her bottom. Despite being beached, she filled and slid off the steep bank into deep water where she sank near Brashear City, Louisiana. Five of her crew were lost.

See also

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.


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